I’ll be up in Boston this weekend to catch Built to Spill’s run at the Middle East.

But I’m regretting it as there are some stellar shows happening. Wye Oak is opening for Blitzen Trapper at a mammoth Saturday Ottobar event. Following the show, everyone’s favorite DJ Jason Willett will be hosting the after-party at the Golden West.

Out of towners Dark Party and Mux Mool bring electronic dance bliss (lush with hip-hop beats and influence) to the Hexagon, while opener Cex blasts you with his particularly visceral brand of electronic and beats-master Mickey Free lays down some rhymes. This is easily a can’t miss show.

At 16 I hit a crisis—I walked away from the classical training I began 10 years earlier.I didn’t give it up entirely, but I decided I wasn’t going to pursue becoming a classical cellist as a career.Very quickly the musical void left by the absencesof practicing multiple hours a day was soon filled by electronic music.I was introduced to avant-garde electronic music at an early age; so making sounds on the computer didn’t seem odd while all my friends were out starting punk bands.I eventually fell into Electronic Dance Music, and I never looked back.

My take on popular music may be somewhat unique, given that I moved from the more esoteric to the more mainstream, not the other way around.To make a generalization the more vanguard electronic acts, though they may be pushing into new territory, are also the lesser-attended live acts.The more trite, derivative acts, though lacking in that exploratory nature, are the larger draws.I think it is safe to say that this generally holds true for any genre, and I’d get into the realm of speculation if I were to attribute reasons to why this happens.But here are some concrete examples from last week. Read the rest…

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